


Little Sparrow

by theremin



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23428324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theremin/pseuds/theremin
Summary: Jared receives a gift. Set after season 6.
Relationships: Jared Dunn/Richard Hendricks
Comments: 63
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

Jared had read 52 books on the so far five month trip, exceeding his in hindsight modest 20 book goal. He was currently immersed in a Swedish crime thriller he'd found on a shelf in a youth hostel in Shijiazhuang, conscientiously leaving behind a Liane Moriarty he'd found in Chengdu. The scarcity of book shops with a decent English selection (the only English language books he'd been able to find for sale were out of copyright classics) meant he read a lot of stuff he wouldn't normally pick up, books left in hostels and cafes, which was quite fun. Of course there were e-books, but Jared enjoyed the tactility of the paper book, enjoyed not having to charge it on trains and buses and boats, enjoyed imagining its previous readers. These backpacker books lived exciting lives, trading strange hands across the continent.

The bathroom door opened and Richard walked out, naked and rubbing his face with his towel. They'd lived in each others pockets for so long the awkwardness of nudity had long evaporated. One night in Madrid, red wine drunk and reckless, he'd grabbed Richard's hand hard and pulled him towards the dance floor after a flamenco performance, and Richard had refused so firmly and categorically Jared had been on the verge of tears, convinced he'd ruined their friendship forever, but the next day it was like it had never happened. Another night, in Hohhot, they'd been in a guesthouse so bitterly cold he'd woken up from Richard's teeth chattering, and when he'd asked him if he was okay Richard had asked him to come over and they'd spooned close and slept well. The next day it was like that had never happened, too. So Jared had accepted this was a new normal, a fugue state where previously unthinkable things just happened, bouncing off their normal relationship but never changing it. Might as well enjoy it while it lasted.

So he let his eyes drift from the pages of the book and over Richard's body. He was wiry and lean, tanned olive brown on his face, arms and legs but with the pale ghosts of his T-shirts and shorts lightening his skin in places. He was bumpy with mosquito bites and had some jagged new scars, on one knee and striped across one arm, from falls and tumbles on their hiking expeditions. It was hard to keep him from picking at them. He'd let his reddish beard grow in and his hair was as long and shaggy as Jared had ever seen it, his natural curls keeping it from touching his shoulders, but it would probably succumb to its own weight soon. He was pretty unrecognizable. Which was probably for the best. There were a lot of other American tourists in their path and he looked nothing like the infamous tech paria who had, months earlier, overflowed America's 5G towers with rats.

Richard caught him looking, and Jared smiled at him. "How was it?"

Richard shrugged. "No more hot water. You should wait." He dropped the towel and started rifling through his things for clean underwear, locating some and pulling it on. They had very different styles, Richard's half of the rooms they checked into looked like London after the blitz while Jared kept his side neat. Richard didn't have a system, he just pulled literally everything out of his backpack the second they checked in and then whined it took him forever to pack when it was time to check out.

"Let's go out later, sightseeing by night," Jared said. There was something special about exploring a city in the dark, when the crowds thinned. Having a nice long meal out with Richard and then walking it off together exploring a strange city had accounted for some of his most wonderful memories this trip.

Richard nodded, head emerging from a fresh T-shirt. "Yeah, cool. Did you find any cool places we need to see?"

"Um, no, I'm afraid I've been rather preoccupied with the problems of detective Wallander," Jared said, raising his paperback. "let me borrow your laptop."

Richard walked over with it and Jared put the book aside, started the laptop up, input Richard's password (Balthazar! The name of his favourite stuffed toy as a child! How he'd relished that information) and after a few minutes managed to connect to the spotty hotel wifi.

"I'll just check my email first," he said, logging into it and waiting for it to load. Jared watched the screen and frowned, clicked, and suddenly a tear fell from his eye to split his cheek.

"What uh?" Richard asked. "Jared, what, what's wrong?"

"Gloria is dead," he said in a disbelieving voice.

"Oh man, uh," Richard said, sat down on the side of the bed and put his arms around Jared, and Jared heard someone sobbing and realized it was himself.

*

"I feel so bad about making you cut your trip short," Jared said, wringing his hands.

"You're not making me do anything," Richard said. Their flight out of Beijing and to San Francisco was still two hours away, and they were sat on not very comfortable airport seats. "like..." he looked down at his fingernails. "I mean, okay, the first time we ran into each other in ah, Zurich, I was a little weirded out, but um. You've just like. Really been here for me? And uh, I needed you." His ears went a little pink, and he cleared his throat. "Yeah, embarrassing to admit, heh. But uh, if like you need me for whatever, with uh with this, I wanna be there for you, too. Like I'm kind of useless but maybe you need like a driver or uh someone to order a pizza or uh..."

"Oh, Richard," Jared said. "oh, goodness." He felt himself getting emotional and started searching through his pockets for tissues, when Richard handed him one with a slightly mischivious smile.

"See? That, I can do."

"Paper towel dispenser?" Jared said, blotting his eyes, and Richard laughed. Jared had never loved anyone more.

*

Back at the condo after hours and hours of travel (Richard's apartment had been sold months ago), they opened windows, stocked the fridge with groceries, Jared found places for the knick knacks he hadn't been able to resist buying. A little souvenir elephant from Thailand, a pretty wall scroll with a crane drawing from Shanghai, a little mermaid from Copenhagen. Richard occupied the sofa and wouldn't hear word of taking the bedroom. There had been a terse discussion but Jared had given up in the end, exhausted, starfishing out in his own bed and sleeping like the dead. The next day Richard let Jared give him a haircut and help trim his beard, and Jared hurriedly put up the pants and sleeves of one of his suits with pins so Richard could wear it. Richard looked nice, sharp, and the jacket was only a little too long.

The service was quiet and modest. Gloria's family were there, the friends that were left. Jared's eulogy was short and to the point, he talked about how they'd met volunteering for the Golden Gate Audubon Society and how she always said she'd love to know what flight felt like and that he hoped she felt it now, and he felt dizzy throughout. When he walked down to sit next to Richard he reached out and held his hand and whispered "That was fucking amazing," and he felt a little better. Afterwards a young woman with dyed black hair and heavy eyeliner walked up to them.

"Hey, Jared."

"Hey, Kristin," he said, leaning down for a hug. "I'm so sorry, oh god, I'm so sorry."

When they pulled apart she looked at Richard. "Is this Richard?" The corners of her mouth quirked upwards.

"Yeah uh hi sorry for your loss," Richard mumbled, reached out a hand to shake.

"Thanks," she said, shaking firmly, before turning back to Jared. "I just want you to know, the family had a meeting, and we're not going to contest the will. Most of us totally respect and understand nana's wishes. The people who were the angriest are greedy trash who haven't seen her in years anyway. I said as much." She tossed her hair a little feistily.

Jared smiled a little blankly. "Why? What did she do? Oh goodness, she gave it all to the Audubon society, didn't she?"

Kristin frowned. "Haven't you opened your mail?"

"We just came back from China yesterday," Jared said. "we barely made it here in time. But I'm so glad I got to say goodbye. You know, while Richard and I were travelling, I'd talk to Gloria on Facebook-"

Kristin shook her head impatiently. "Jared, she left you the bakery. She left you the Little Sparrow bakery."


	2. Chapter 2

"I can't believe she did this," Jared said, flustered. "I told her, I told her-"

"You told her not to include you in her will?" Kristin asked.

Jared went red. "Well, not in so many words, that would be a little presumptuous, but this isn't the first time I've been in this situation. A dear friend made me her sole heir ten or so years ago, her whole family went after me and wouldn't leave me alone even after I signed away my rights to the inheritance. They claimed I'd been stealing from her and wanted to ransack my place. They didn't get anywhere legally but the fight really took it out of me." He shivered a little at the memory. 

"What a bunch of assholes," Richard said. "you never told me this."

"Well no, I don't like to revisit it, but it's a story I like to tell my elderly friends so they'll remember not to put me in a similar position again. Money can make people very unpleasant. Goodness, I can't believe Gloria would do this. Listen, Kristin, I don't want it. Just, um, I'll sign it away, I'll-"

Kristin grabbed Jared's arm and looked straight at him. "Look, Jared, nana loved you. Do you have any idea how much you meant to her, your walks and chats and tea parties? She said you kept her young."

"We were friends," Jared said in a high voice. "I don't uh- I don't charge for friendship-"

"I know that. Look, she wanted you to have the bakery, she's also leaving behind her apartment and jewelry and stuff, the family are getting theirs, don't worry. Look, at least come to the reading of the will, it's later today."

Jared's face did a lot of strained things and his eyes went round. Richard put a hand on his back. "We uh, we'll be there," he said.

Kristin smiled. "Great. See you then. I'll text you the directions." She turned and walked away to join some other family members.

"Oh Richard, oh this is terrible."

"Like, relax, we'll uh, we'll go to the reading and um. We'll take it from there. You never told me Gloria owned a bakery?"

Jared shrugged. "It's been closed as long as I've known her. She bought the property in the seventies, ran it with her sister. The sister died in the nineties, cancer. Gloria closed the place when she got too old for the job. She didn't want to sell because she hated the gentrification of San Francisco." Jared scratched his neck. "I'm proud to say I managed to change her mind on tech professionals, at least!"

"So it could potentially be worth a lot of money?"

Jared nodded, sighed. "To developers? In that location? Yes. They started to come sniffing years before she closed, she told me she used to run them out with a broomstick." He smiled. "I'm not sure that part is true."

"She must have really loved running the bakery, huh?"

Jared nodded. "Yes, she did. Plus she had her apartment which was already paid off, enough income to live comfortably on. The property market and economy was a different thing a generation ago. She didn't need developer money so she wouldn't take it. She had her principles and stuck to them. Kind of like you."

"I wish I could have met her," Richard said. Jared didn't really believe him, but appreciated him saying it anyway. 

They went to a cafe and had lunch, and Jared talked about Gloria. He felt he was probably boring Richard, but Richard just kind of politely listened and asked questions, and Jared found he couldn't shut up. He talked about her vast knowledge of birds, her appreciation for new pop music, her sense of humour, her political beliefs. He talked about how they'd just clicked and talked for hours the first time they met. 

"I told her all about you, too," Jared said.

"Oh? Uh?"

"I told her-" Jared shut his mouth with an audible clack, smiled awkwardly. "well, it doesn't matter."

Richard shrugged. "We should probably get going."

They drove to the pin Kristin had dropped them, walked into a grey building and found the right attorney's office. There were several chairs placed out for the occasion and they sat in the back. Kristin waved at them from the front. Some people glared, and Jared nervously fingered his collar. Richard bumped his shoulder into Jared's arm and Jared looked at him and Richard smiled and leaned in. "Fuck them," he whispered under his breath. 

_"Richard,"_ Jared whispered admonishingly back, but smiled doing it.

They sat through the reading of the division of property and goods between Gloria's three children, her five grandchildren, and some smaller gifts for nieces, nephews, friends.

The attorney adjusted his glasses, read aloud. "And finally, for my dear, good friend Jared Dunn, who made an old woman very happy in her final years. Barely a day passed you didn't give me some little or big attention, and when you all get to be 85, you'll know how much it means to be viewed as a pleasure and not a chore. To be sought out and not do the seeking. I should have told you how much I treasured your friendship, but I hope you knew it anyway."

Jared took a shuddery breath, powerless to stop the tears from falling. 

"That's why I want you to have the Little Sparrow bakery. Do with it as you please. Sell it to a no good developer and enjoy the money. Do it up and try your hand at selling that vegan baking of yours, you've sure made a convert out of me. Paint it green and call it a garden. The point is, it's yours. Now, I know some of my family might challenge that, I know you're probably not happy right now, Mark."

Richard looked up to see heads in the room turn towards a heavy set man in his sixties, whose face was very red. He'd given Jared a nasty look when they walked in. 

"But it's my damn property and I give it to who I please. If a single one of you dare to challenge my wish on this, I want all my assets to go to the Donald Trump campaign for his presidential reelection. Try fighting those sons of bitches."

A gasp went through the room. "She hated him with every bone of her body," Jared whispered to Richard. The red man named Mark seemed to deflate and lose a few inches in height. Kristin burst out laughing. 

"That's all. I love you, everyone. Signed, Gloria Evans." The attorney looked up from the paper. "Now, I received a challenge to the will by e-mail last night," he started.

"Disregard that," the woman sat next to Mark said, cleared her throat. "delete it."

"Very well. Does anyone else wish to challenge the will?"

There was a long silence.

"Excellent."

*

"That was pretty fucking badass," Richard grinned, sitting in the driver's seat of Jared's Prius. 

"She was a very original thinker," Jared said. "good lord. I still can't believe it." He fingered the envelope with the keys in his hand. 

"So what are you going to do?" Richard asked.

"I- goodness, I have no idea."

After twenty minutes driving Richard slowed down the car, looked around. "Is this the place?"

"Yes, um, see the papered over windows? The place with all the graffiti? You can drive in back, take a right, we can park there."

Richard did as told and they parked behind an older building, canary yellow in color. They walked in front and the old bakery was clearly neglected, the windows boarded up and papered, one pane had a big crack in it, the door and front sprayed with graffiti. It was an eyesore in an otherwise nice, bustling neighborhood. 

"Have you ever been here before?" Richard asked.

"Just the once," Jared said, and tried the keys until he found one that fit. The door opened with a long creak, and they walked inside. The furniture was covered with white sheets. Richard started coughing, every step they took whirled up dust. Cobwebs hung from the corners. Jared fumbled around and found the light switch, but nothing happened when he clicked it. "Guess she stopped paying the electricity bill," he remarked. "wait, I have a torch in my car."

He went out and got it, and Richard waited outside, away from the choking air. Torch in hand they went back inside. The beam of light fell on a wall full of framed photographs. 

"Who are these people?"

"She called it the lovers' wall," Jared said. "they're all people who had first dates here, who ended up getting together."

"Uh, okay."

"Gloria said back in the 80s and 90s, Little Sparrow was the place you went to fall in love," Jared smiled. "you know, she even offered to help me out once or twice!"

"Like you need any help uh."

"What do you mean?"

Richard shrugged. "Um, I dunno, guy who fucks?"

"Well that's - well that's different. That's just sex, Richard."

"Yeah okay uh, let's uh, let's go in here." Richard opened a door behind the counter and Jared followed with the torch. 

The kitchen wasn't big, clearly not allowing for more than two or three people to work in there at the same time. It had two counters running parallel, a big fridge which looked like an antique, two ovens, and a shelf full of well thumbed, stained books. 

"It's almost like I can feel her spirit," Jared said. "like it's in the walls."

"Maybe we should go home," Richard said, shuddering a little. "there's probably rats and shit here."

In the car, Jared looked thoughtfully out the window, silent, while Richard drove. "I think I know what I want to do," he said after a long while.

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Well, I'm not a baker, so I'm not going to try and do that full time. But what if- what if we did it up? What if we had like, a pop up event, and encouraged everyone with happy memories of the bakery to come along? We could probably make enough money to cover what we'd spend in utilities and supplies. Oh, Richard, what if we, for one night only, made Little Sparrow come back alive?"

"Um," Richard said. 

"Oh-" Jared said. "I mean, I mean, what if I did it, not, not we. How presumptous of me! Um, I'm sure I could, do it by myself-"

"No uh. I mean, um, I can like, okay? Yeah, okay, if that's what you want to do. It's not like I have anything better to do with my time."

Jared grinned.


	3. Chapter 3

That same night they made the sofabed up and Richard slipped in as quick as it was made. Jared bristled. "Richard, seriously, I want you to take the bedroom. I literally just changed the sheets for you."

"Enjoy the fresh sheets. Good night," Richard said, covering himself with the blanket.

"Why on earth are you being so stubborn? You're my guest, I want you to have it."

"No thanks."

Jared took a breath like he was about to reply, then he closed his mouth and got into the sofabed too, pulling at the covers, taking half.

"Uh- uh, what are you doing?"

"Going to bed."

"What uh, here?"

"I already told you, Richard. The bedroom is yours."

Richard sighed, and swept a hand out. "You don't even fucking fit, Jared. You have to bend your knees to not go outside the frame. Like, it's perfect for me."

"Oh, this is nothing," Jared chuckled. "after you've spent a few nights in a broom closet, you become quite flexible!"

Richard got an obstinate look on his face. "Fine, guess we're sleeping together, then. Good night." He turned on his side, showing Jared his back. 

Jared looked at the slope of his shoulders, his hair. Richard had suggested he just give him a buzzcut but Jared had balked at that. So he'd taken off some length but kept enough to retain the curl. It looked good. He suddenly remembered that night in Hohhot vividly, the feeling of Richard's cold body against his, his feet like blocks of ice, how he'd pushed close to Jared for warmth. Jared had tried rubbing his arm but Richard had squirmed and grabbed his hand, wrestled it to the mattress in front of them. When he'd woken up his hand lay on Richard's stomach, he could feel a trail of coarse hair, had been tempted to brush his fingers through it but had instead got up and made them some tea. 

"Richard?"

"Yeah."

"You know you don't have to help out with the whole, the whole bakery thing."

Richard looked at him over his shoulder, then flopped over on his back, folded his hands over his chest. "No, I said I want to, remember? I mean, I don't know the first fucking thing about... uh... cooking or baking or even fucking... painting or wiring or the thousand things that place needs done to it, but umm, if you give me directions I can try." He shrugged. "Like, it could be kind of fun?"

Jared smiled. "If you have other plans, then I don't want to stand in the way."

"What plans? Like, how the fuck am I going to get a job after what happened with Pied Piper. Like, one google search and I'll go straight in the reject pile forever. It gives me hives thinking about it." He sighed deep. "I thought maybe I could make the beard a permanent thing, and try changing my name. Do you think I look like a Charles?"

"What?" Jared laughed.

"Maybe Alex? Could I be an Alex?"

Jared shook his head, moved in a little closer. "You're a Richard."

"No-one's going to want a Richard," Richard said petulantly. "a Richard is going to die on the streets."

"Not as long as there's a Jared," Jared said.

Richard stared at him wide-eyed for a moment, then smiled. "You are so corny. Okay. Fine. You win." He got up, trailed into Jared's bedroom. "Good night."

"Good night," Jared said.

*

Over the next couple of days Jared had the electricity and water turned on, set out a plan and a list of tasks, made a budget. He asked Richard to make a website and Richard gleefully set to it, clacking away in Jared's little home office.

"Oh goodness, is that how much it is?" Jared said into his phone. That cracked window pane needed replacing, but the price he'd estimated in his little budget wasn't even half of the quote the guy on the phone just gave him. "It's just the one pane."

_"Look, it's a small job in a city of big jobs, the hourly rate is what it is."_

"We'd be happy to have an, uh, apprentice do it. We're doing a popup just for one night..."

_"Yeah, yeah."_

"Maybe you remember the Little Sparrow bakery?"

The line went silent.

"Um, hello?" Jared said.

_"Near the big fountain?"_

"Yes, that's the one!"

_"Man, the sparrow bakery. You know, I used to go there with my wife, well, before she was my wife. Hey, our picture used to hang on the wall."_

"I'm sure it still does. We're going to clean them all off for the opening."

_"What's your budget?"_

Jared told him. Then he hung up, beamed at Richard. "Richard! You won't believe what just happened."

"Come over here. What do you think?"

Jared walked over, looked over his shoulder. "Oh, I like it."

"All CSS baby. The animations and everything. GIFs are for the weak. But until we actually have more info all viewers will see is this placeholder."

"You used the photo!"

The screen showed a photo of Gloria and her sister, Beth, outside the newly opened bakery in 1976 and a popup date announcement signup. The color scheme was Richard's go-to warm green, and it all looked very gentle and homey.

"I haven't coded a website in like... more than a decade? But this was really fun."

Jared put a hand on his shoulder. "And tomorrow, you'll get to paint."

*

Jared had barely unlocked the doors the next morning before a van from the window repair company showed up, quickly changing out the broken pane. Then Richard set to hosing down the front, which dried quickly in the midday sun, before beginning the paintwork. Jared set to work cleaning inside. Richard's proficiency with the paintbrush wasn't quite what it was with the markdown editor and he worked pretty slowly. When it was nearing lunchtime Jared walked outside, surveying the progress. The graffiti was making way to a pastel green on the brick. Richard had been sceptical, but had in the end agreed the door would be a light pink. 

Richard looked up, wiped his forehead with his arm. Jared figured if he'd done the painting himself he'd be at least twice as far along as Richard had come, but that didn't matter, there was no deadline, and didn't Richard look amazing hard at work like this, all sweaty in his undershirt.

"Oh goodness, it's Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire! Did you by any chance see where Richard went?" 

"Ha, ha." 

"It's coming along nicely," Jared said. 

"Yeah, it's good, huh?" 

"Hungry?" 

"Yes," Richard said definitively. Jared had uncovered one of the tables and laid it out with the sandwiches he'd made that morning, a thermos of lemonade, another one with coffee, and a peeled and parted orange. 

"What the hell is that?" Richard asked, pointed to a sewn-together, slim book which said BOOK OF SPELLS in calligraphy on the cover, lying next to the lunch spread. 

"Oh I've made a terrific discovery!" Jared said gleefully. "I was cleaning down the kitchen so I pulled all the books off the shelf. It's a pretty nice collection of vintage cookbooks. Honey From a Weed by Patience Grey, plenty of Elizabeth David and Julia Child." 

Richard nodded in that slightly disinterested way he did when he had no idea what Jared was talking about and not really any interest in investigating further. 

"And tucked among them - that. Open it." 

"Okay." Richard opened the book. Every page had a handwritten recipe on it. Some were fairly simple, some were incredibly elaborate. On some pages two different sets of handwriting intertwined, making additions or corrections. Richard smiled a little when he saw one handwriting crossing something out, only to have the second handwriting put it back in, only for it to be crossed out another time. He showed Jared. "Guess they must have had a fight over this one." 

"It's all the Evans sisters' secret recipes!" Jared said. "It's what they sold here at the bakery. Some are alterations of recipes from the other books, like here-" he grabbed it off Richard, flipped through until he found what he was looking for. It was a note that just said E. David p266 sub blueberries, +thyme. 

"Thyme? Like the spice?" 

"They use plenty of herbs in their recipes," Jared said. "it's very original!" 

"The names are kind of twee." 

Jared grinned, and read aloud. "Happy Memories pie. To bring back a treasured time for the taster. Pining Pineapple Upside Down Cake. To soothe the hungry heart. Everlasting love chocolate mousse. For the committed sweet tooths." 

"What does that mean?" 

"No idea. But they're all like that. Um, I don't want to bake with eggs and dairy, so I'm going to make a list of the ones I think I can successfully convert, and that will be our menu." 

Richard nodded, drinking coffee. "Sounds like a plan." 

* 

Richard didn't argue about the bed that night, Jared figured they were both too exhausted for that. After warm, soothing showers on tired bones they said goodnight. Jared watched Richard as he disappeared into the bedroom. A very small, deeply selfish and cruel part of him liked Richard like this. The part of Jared that had read Jane Eyre twenty times (and watched the Ruth Wilson and Toby Phillips version seven times - Fassbender didn't really do anything for him). He liked Richard burnt and broken and alone in a Yorkshire manor, metaphorically speaking, because that way he needed Jared. But at the core of that shameful feeling he knew that wasn't really true. Richard was, for better or worse, a whole person. He was self-sufficient, he knew who he was, he didn't have this ball of need inside him creating tangible magnetic fields around him that repelled some people and attracted others. 

Jared did. 

But the day he'd met Richard he'd known this was different. He'd found a new determination, a new confidence, a new way to live that made him genuinely happy. Being with Richard felt like being the person he was always destined to become. He felt whole. Even if Richard were to leave his life (and he had, he cringed to look back on, tried to forcibly eject him from it at one point) he'd be forever changed for knowing him. 

That was why he'd always laughed and changed the subject when Gloria offered to introduce him to granddaughters of friends, young acquaintances, claiming she had an eye and a knack for these things. Jared was already in love, and even if it was hopeless, he wasn't prepared to let it go. 


	4. Chapter 4

The next several days passed quickly. Richard finished painting the storefront in pastel green, then the doors and window sills in a complimentary pink. He had to field a lot of questions from curious passers by, told Jared the stories they told him about the bakery over lunch, or back at the condo at night. It seemed a lot of people had happy memories of the place. All the stories made Jared happy. Gloria had made her mark. As for Jared, he was plenty busy inside. He cleaned the walls, the ceilings and floors, vacuumed away cobwebs and balls of dust. He gently uncovered all the furniture and packed away the sheets in bags, walked over to the laundromat a little further up the street and washed them. Then he handscrubbed all the tables, white with a lot of finicky little detail, and the chairs. Some of them needed reupholstering, and he took photos with his phone, made a note to go by the fabric store and look for something similar or at the very least complimentary. He uncovered a big jukebox and plugged it in. A quarter on a string was attached to the side. He smiled, chose "The End of The World" by Skeeter Davis.

Richard walked inside, attracted by the music, pink paint dotting his T-shirt. "Wow!"

Jared grinned. "Doesn't it sound great?"

"Fuck, it sounds amazing?"

"All these records are pretty old. They stopped making vinyl singles long before the bakery closed, and didn't begin again until long after."

"Well, good. Who the fuck wants to listen to... Maroon 5."

"Snob. Plenty of people do."

"Oh man, Julee Cruise! Play that next."

"You can play it," Jared said. "if you're done outside, you can DJ while we get started on all these dusty picture frames."

*

When the place was gleaming and the front was freshly painted, they went shopping for flours, sugars, yeasts, diary replacements, and hit up the farmers' markets for fruit and berries. Jared also found a fabric he liked, and Richard volunteered to try reupholstering the frazzled chairs. He looked cross-eyed at youtube tutorials and worked slowly and methodically as usual, but the results were pretty nice. After he'd finished the last chair one night he wiped his face with a towel and walked into the kitchen, where Jared had started experimenting.

"Something smells fucking good," he said a little hopefully, looking over at pale yellow cookies cooling on a rack.

"Don't touch them, they need to get decorated."

"What are they?"

"They're called Second Sight Cookies. That's why they're shaped like eyes, see? I found the cutter and had to try them."

Richard grabbed the book of spells and read aloud. "Second sight cookies. Lets the taster see what's right in front of them. Uh, okay. Well, they should be round, if they're eyes, not almond shaped. When they're outside the skull. And I mean, inside too obviously-"

"Eyeball cookies might be more appropriate for Halloween," Jared said. Richard shrugged. "if you want to help, why don't you wash your hands and make some royal icing?"

Richard got a weird look on his face, pulled his upper lip back to reveal his front teeth in that slightly rodenty way he did when he felt uncomfortable. "Um, I thought you were gonna do the food things."

"There are a lot of food things to do," Jared said. "I'd hoped you'd be able to help me out with some of the simpler tasks?"

"I don't even know what royal icing is. Is it like, the shit on top of Hostess cupcakes?"

Jared smiled, handed over a clean bowl and powdered sugar. "Put some of this in that?"

"Woah, woah. Some? How much is some?"

"We'll I've only made a dozen, so we don't need that much. Just... some."

"You're going to have to get more specific than that!"

"Richard-"

"Fine, fine, uh, okay," he mumbled, got his phone out, found a youtube video. Jared smiled, shook his head, and started washing up. Richard watched the video, then mixed together powdered sugar and water, and brought it over to Jared for approval. Jared dried his hands off with a kitchen towel, appraised it.

"Did you try it?"

"No? I just followed the recipe? Since it's sugar and water I assume it tastes like sugar."

"Try it for texture, not taste."

Jared found a teaspoon, scooped some of the icing on it and handed it to Richard, who tried a little. He shrugged. "I dunno."

"How do you think it would spread across a cookie?"

"Uh... maybe a little thick."

"Then you need more water."

"But I did what the recipe said!"

"Following a recipe to the letter is usually a good idea, but sometimes you have to trust your own instincts, too. Here," Jared cut a lemon in two.

"Why is it... naked," Richard asked.

Jared looked confused for a moment before he laughed. "Because I put the peel in the cookie dough."

"Uh. Okay. What do you want me to do with this?" he asked, looking at the lemon half Jared had handed him.

"Squeeze some juice into the icing. No um, with your other hand under, so you catch any seeds or bits of fruit. That way you also have control over how much you put in?"

"Well how much- yeah, okay, don't tell me. Some."

"You're getting it," Jared grinned. "a good rule is to be a little careful. You can always put more in, but it's hard taking stuff out."

Richard squeezed the lemon, let the juice drizzle inbetween his fingers. He whisked some more with the fork, then tasted it, put in another spoon of water, mixed and tasted again. "Hmm, yeah!" he said.

"Good?"

"Fuck Jared, I don't fucking know, tastes good to me."

Jared scooped some icing with a finger and put it in his mouth, and Richard stared. "It's perfect, Richard." He laughed. "Don't look at me like that, we're not selling these."

Jared scooped most of the icing up in a piping bag, started decorating the cookies apart from the round indent in the middle. "Put some blue food coloring in the rest," he instructed. "very little, it's potent stuff."

Richard did as told and soon all the cookies were iced white, with a blue iris in the middle, and a little blueberry for a pupil. 

"Okay, can I try one now?" Richard asked.

"Yeah, if you want," Jared said. "ideally they should set, but..."

"Yeah, yeah," Richard grinned and grabbed one, took a bite and chewed. "oh fuck, that's good. Lemony and sweet and uh yeah. Nice one. There's something uh extra here too which uhh..."

"Well there were some original touches in the recipe, I-" Jared forgot what he was saying because Richard was looking at him so intensely, with that determined blue gaze which was usually reserved for things like the markdown editor or a particularly challenging Tetris game. "uh- is something wrong, Richard?"

His gaze softened then, the corners of his eyes crinkled with a smile. "No uh. Not at all. These are fucking good."

"Oh well um- I'll uh, I'll try one too-" Jared looked away and picked one out, took a bite. "um, yes, that's pretty nice, isn't it! I thought when we open we'd make irises in green and brown as well, um, and anyone who wants one can pick their own eye color."

"Good idea," Richard said. "gross but uh fun. Can I have another one?"

*

Jared was at the sewing machine in his bedroom. When he'd bought the fabric for the chairs, he'd also found some pink chiffon he figured would make for nice curtains. He was wearing his reading glasses, which he was beginning to need pretty regularly for detail work like this, and lost himself in the activity, the whirr of the machine and the required concentration for a tricksy sheer fabric like this. He suddenly felt a weight on his back and his eyes went wide when he realized Richard had leaned his forearm against the back of his shoulders, putting his chin on his own wrist, positioning his mouth very very close to Jared's ear. He took his foot off the pedal. "Uh? Richard?"

"What are you doing?"

"Well I- I'm making curtains."

"They look good."

"Um, thank you!"

"You're so... like, you know how to do so much shit. Budgets and laundry and cooking and sewing and nails and like... everything."

Richard's breath was warm against the side of Jared's face but he couldn't smell any alcohol on it. "Jack of all trades, I guess," he said.

"But you're good at them, too," Richard said. "that's what... fucking kills me."

Jared chanced on turning his face a little over his shoulder, which made his nose brush into Richard's. "Did- did you want to go to bed, Richard?"

A beat. "Yeah."

"Oh! Well, you should have just said! I'll, I'll ah, finish all this tomorrow."

"No, that's okay, I wanted to read anyway."

The weight of Richard disappeared and Jared looked over his shoulder at Richard who had sat down on the bed, pulling off his socks. "Um-"

"It's fine," Richard said. "go back to your sewing. I like the noise."

"Well- if you're sure."

"I like those glasses on you."

"What?"

"Just, you pull them off."

"Well uh, thank you, Richard." Jared smiled and took a deep breath, tried focussing back on the curtains, and with some real effort he managed. He was close to finished anyway and fifteen minutes later he got up, held the curtains up. Richard was reading a book called Sandworm, and looked up at him.

"Well, now we have curtains!"

"Looking good," Richard said, but he looked straight at Jared when he said it without looking down at the curtains at all. 

"Are, are you feeling quite alright, Richard?"

"Never better."

"Well, um, good night, then."

"Sweet dreams," Richard said cheerfully.


	5. Chapter 5

Richard walked out of the bathroom, clean shaven, hair still damp, smiling. Jared, still in his pajamas and a soft V neck, smiled back.

"Well, goodness me! Look at you!"

"Yeah just thought uh I'd get rid of the fuzz," Richard said, touching his jaw with an open hand.

"You look great either way, of course," Jared said. "but I thought you said you wanted to make the beard permanent?"

Richard shrugged. "Just felt like taking it off. Clean up a bit, you know. So, uh, Jared, what are we doing today?"

"More cooking. A lot more cooking. I've come up with a list of ten recipes I'd like to have ready on the day. But we're going to have to try them out first, of course. In smaller batches, but still. There's also some jams and syrups the Evans sisters made themselves which I think would be really nice to be able to use. So that will take some time, too."

"So you don't have a date you're decided on yet?"

Jared shook his head. "We're okay for money, we can do this for a while longer. It's nice to not have a deadline, right?"

Richard nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. It's a chill way to live. These months travelling and now this project... like, I never really cared about making it big, but a nice thing about being rich has to be just being able to live like this." He sighed. "My savings will only go so far, though."

Jared walked over to him and handed him a cup of coffee. When Richard accepted it, he brushed his fingers over Jared's. Something was different, but Jared had no idea what had prompted it. "Well, you've always got a place to stay," Jared said. He heard his own voice go a little husky.

"Sure you won't get sick of me?" Richard looked up at him over the brim of the cup while he took his first sip.

"Yes," Jared said. He smiled. "gosh, Richard. Never."

*

At the bakery they tried out Spice Up Your Life cookies, Heartbreak Cure chocolate cake, Breaking the Ice mint mousse (a failed experiment, as it just wouldn't set even with the aid of Jared's agar-agar). Jared boiled syrups and made apricot jam.

"Um, they go in like a filling, or what?" Richard asked, arms deep in washing up.

"I'm going to thin it with water and make a glaze. Apparently it's an old French patisserie trick," Jared replied. "painting cakes with fresh fruits on top with a gloss of apricot jam glaze both preserves the fruit and makes them look kind of shiny and post-coital. It makes people buy more."

Richard frowned. "Yeah, I'd sure want to eat a cake that had just been fucked."

"It's a, um, what's the word I'm looking for. Like Proust's Madeleine cake."

"A remembrance?" Richard grinned. 

"Yeah, kind of. A trigger. But like a positive one! Not the kind that makes you hide underneath the coffee table."

"Subliminal marketing, more like. French people. Uh." Richard shook his head. He finished up the washing up and dried his arms with a kitchen towel. "Come out here for a second."

Jared glanced over at the simmering jam. "Okay?"

Richard walked over to the jukebox, used the quarter on a string. An Etta James song started playing. "Um, so, I'm sorry."

"Oh Richard, whatever for?"

"Uhh do you remember that night in Madrid? You wanted me to dance with you?"

They'd never talked about it. Jared felt his face heat up. "Gosh, Richard, please forget all about it. I was drunk, it was inappropriate."

"I panicked," Richard said. "I mean, for one, I just fucking hate dancing. I feel like everyone is looking at me. I feel like I'm the comedy relief in a musical where everybody else is in sync. Like uh... a dog running into frame by mistake or something."

"Richard-"

"There's nobody else here now, though." Richard raised his eyebrows and reached out a hand. Almost in a daze, Jared accepted it. 

Richard was right. He really couldn't dance. He started out with stepping on Jared's foot, swearing and apologizing, and his grip on Jared's waist was weak and unsure. He kept looking down at their feet. He had the grace, subtlety and elegance of an Oktoberfest horn band paid in beer. 

Jared was in heaven.

"Um- Jared-" Richard leaned in a little and Jared closed his eyes, took a deep breath. "do uh, do you smell something burning?"

"The apricots! Oh, goodness!"

He pulled away, pushing Richard a little so he stumbled backwards, and ran into the kitchen. After a good deal of maneuvring and scrubbing down the oven top, about half of the jam was salvageable.

*

After an evening spent flipping through hi fi forums and watching youtube tutorials, Richard had figured out how to make the jukebox play continually. There were only room for fifty singles in there, but most of them were pretty good, spread across the decades, though the majority were from the 60s and 70s. Richard had started picking up the lyrics and singing along. The Evans sisters had good taste. Jared theorized the oldest were from their personal teenage collections. Richard, more interested in numbers than personal histories, had figured out the oldest song was by Bing Crosby ("I Can't Begin To Tell You", 1945) and the newest was by Richard's favourite, Julee Cruise ("Falling", 1990). He'd even figured out how to change the singles, suggested adding some new ones to the mix but Jared was reluctant to change anything until after the popup at least.

"Do you think we could fit it in the apartment?" Richard asked a little wistfully.

"I've thought about the same thing," Jared said, thrilling a little at Richard talking about the condo as if it was theirs. The jukebox was playing another oldie, "It's Magic" by Doris Day, and Richard was humming along to it while his hands were busy kneading pastry dough in a big bowl, rubbing margerine into the flour. Jared suddenly felt bold.

"Give me your opinion on something." He walked over to where Richard was working, leaned his back against the counter, held up a small red cupcake with a swirl of white frosting for Richard's inspection. "Do you think this looks better like this, or..." he raised his other hand and drizzled over a little red glitter he'd held between a thumb and a finger. "like this."

"Oh okay, we're doing magic tricks now," Richard said. "I don't know? I prefer it without the glitter. But I guess most people would like it with?"

"Could do half and half?" 

Richard nodded. "Yeah, sounds good, that could look pretty. What is it?"

"First Kiss cupcake. Red velvet and vanilla bean frosting. You want it?"

Richard held his greasy, floury hands up. "Yeah, but maybe not right at this moment."

Jared smiled, unpeeled the paper cup, held it in front of Richard. Richard looked for a beat, then leaned forward, gently took a bite, his full bottom lip momentarily brushing over one of Jared's fingers. He pulled back, started chewing, then nodded smiling. "That is really, really fucking good. Oh my god."

Jared smiled, pleased. "Yeah?" He took a bite out of the cupcake too. "Oh my goodness! Not bad!"

"Really good like, cake to frosting ratio too? I hate like, greasy kind of cupcakes with a big heap of clown puke on top. These are really super nice. Like, elegant, heh."

Jared bit his lip, reached the final piece of the cupcake out. "Want another bite?"

"We could share it," Richard suggested.

Jared felt his face go all warm again. Surely he hadn't been misreading all these signals? Richard had always been kind, but he wasn't exactly tactile, and only very occasionally playful. Something had shifted, he was sure of it. He'd literally eaten out of his hand a moment ago. So Jared leaned down, and at the same time they bit into it, their mouths bumping. Richard pulled away to chew and laughed, and Jared giggled a little breathlessly. Then Richard licked his lips. And then he leaned back in and swiped his tongue over Jared's lips too. 

"Oh goodness," Jared whispered, and time seemed to slow as they both leaned in and met in a sweet, shy kiss.

Richard pulled away first, took a shuddery breath. "You taste good."

Jared put both hands on Richard's waist and drew him to him, kissed him again, caught his bottom lip between his, and Richard made a little noise which was so sweet if it was possible Jared would set it as his notification sound. Jared felt the tip of Richard's tongue tentatively taste at his cupid's bow and opened his mouth a little for a deeper kiss and Richard's hands came up to cup his face. Suddenly, Richard pulled back.

"Oh, Jesus Christ, I'm sorry, Jared."

"What?" Jared asked, confused, before realizing he had butter and flour all over his face. Then he laughed.

"I uh, I'll wash my hands and uh"

Jared pulled him back in, still laughing.


	6. Chapter 6

Jared parked his Prius in his regular spot, and they both got out. Richard walked close and Jared reached out, held his hand, and Richard gripped back. The fact that any of this was happening was just... crazy. But there Richard was, smiling shyly up at him, still holding his hand in the elevator, and when they were locked safely inside the condo getting up on his tiptoes to kiss him again, Jared folding down as quick as he could to Richard's level. 

"You're not sleeping on the sofabed tonight," Richard said when he pulled away.

Jared sighed. "Goodness, Richard, I thought we were over this- oh- oh! You mean. Oh."

"I mean, we don't have to like, do anything, uh, just, it would be nice? Maybe? Together um."

So a little later Jared found himself in bed, with Richard Hendricks, and Richard was kissing him and had been kissing him for what could be minutes or hours for all he knew, and he was thrillingly hard against him. Jared tentatively stroked his hand down from where it was curling in Richard's hair, down the slope of his neck, over the fabric of his T-shirt and ghosting over his spine, to his narrow hip, hooking a thumb in the elastic of Richard's boxers-

"Um, uh," Richard said, pulling away from Jared's mouth.

"Oh, I'm sorry,"Jared said. "I thought, maybe-"

"Like, I want- like, sit up."

Jared slid up in a sitting position, back against the headboard, smiled at Richard. Richard followed, straddled Jared's thighs, put both arms around his neck. Jared beamed up at him, held his waist. "Oh, okay."

"If we're gonna do this, I like, I have a request?"

"Okay," Jared said again. "anything."

"You need um. To talk to me."

Jared raised an eyebrow.

"I don't mean uh, dirty talk or whatever, I just... like... I haven't been, with that many people. Uh, surprise. And I've gotten um, some uh bad feedback. On uhh. Technique."

Richard's voice went very high and Jared resisted the urge to draw him in for a hug. Richard clearly needed to get this off his chest uninterrupted.

"But like - it's always the day after they tell me before blocking me on everything, or they tell their friends instead of me and laugh at me, when uh, what would... maybe make me less awful would be telling me while it was happening? So I can correct it? Like, if you debug while you code, there's less of a fucking mess to review, that's the whole fucking point of pair programming."

Jared tried getting his head around the metaphor. "Um, so if you do something I don't like, you want me to tell you right away."

Richard looked relieved. "Yes! Exactly. Like, I can't read minds and I'm not uh... like, tell me what you like, okay? Just, please don't let me fuck this up." Richard sounded nervous and scared and utterly sincere.

"You know how long I've wanted this, Richard?" Jared asked quietly.

"Uhh... a while?" Richard smiled.

"For as long as I've known you," Jared said.

"Oh, come on."

"It's true. When I first saw your code, I knew you had a special, brilliant mind. The first time I met you, outside Gavin's office, I thought you were cute. I wondered if I had a chance. I hoped if Gavin optioned Pied Piper, maybe I'd get to work on the project too and get to know you."

Richard grinned. "What? Really?"

"And when you turned down all that money... I knew I had to follow you. So if you really think a mediocre blowjob would make me think less of you, I don't know what to say." 

"Okay, yeah, but I don't want to be mediocre okay, I wanna fucking make you see stars." Richard suddenly looked pensive. "Forget I said that. Man, I'm setting myself up to fail."

Jared laughed. He wanted to tell Richard a lot of things. How even just holding his hand made his heart race. How the main reason his last several sexual partners had been women was that most men he met really only cared about themselves and took advantage of Jared's pathological need to please so Richard got points for this conversation alone. How most of his fantasies about Richard really would just require him to lie back and let Jared run his hands and mouth all over him. Instead, he decided to do what Richard had asked him to, which really was quite a new and awkward thing for himself as well.

"Um," Jared said, smiling, feeling himself go a little pink. "I like... having my neck kissed."

Richard looked delighted. "Cool. Cool." He leaned in and whispered "thank you" into Jared's neck before pressing his lips firmly to it.

Jared lips parted and his eyes closed. When very good things happened to him he tried to be as observant as he could, create a memory as accurate as possible to climb into when life got hard; a hangover from a life when, up until a few years ago, those moments tended to be few and far between. He haltingly tried to do the routine - _focus, Donald, remember the feeling of Richard's warm mouth, remember his scent, remember_ \- but his heart was too full, and by the time Richard kissed his mouth again he was too lost in the present to think about the future.

*

Over the next couple of weeks Jared shared a lot more things he liked with Richard, and warned him about some things he definitely did not like, which Richard conscientiously noted. He thrilled at being able to take his shirt off without feeling the need to apologize for how skinny and concave he was - Richard had already seen whatever there was to see, and had grabbed at his chest with such fervour the first time they'd been naked together he'd wondered if maybe Richard had been looking, secretly, in all those hotel rooms, too.

But best of all, he'd learned things Richard liked. He liked to kiss when Jared was inside him. He liked it when Jared dug his thumbs in under his shoulder blades. He liked it when Jared called him beautiful, he looked embarrassed but he was smiling in that helpless way which signalled he wasn't actually uncomfortable.

There was work, too, there was baking and testing and failing and succeeding, there was the final letter in the final menu, there was Richard's complete website unveiled and the 147 signups to the mailing list alerted to the popup date of May 23d. Just with more dancing to the jukebox and making out on the way. Kristin also stopped by one morning and painted the words Little Sparrow Bakery on the window in lovely calligraphy.

*

Richard was reading a new book called Abolish Silicon Valley, lying on the sofa with an arm hooked behind his head. Jared was sitting with his back against the other armrest, legs wrapped up with Richard's. 

"Not that nervous, more excited," he said into his phone. "I can't wait for everybody to see our hard work!"

_"Well, most of the family is coming, and I told all my friends to show, or else. Look, do you need some help tomorrow?"_

"Hmm?"

_"I worked for like three years at fucking Starbucks. I could help out at the till, I know my shit. Obviously I'll do it for free. Dude, nana closed the bakery when I was like two years old, you know what it's like to be a kid and hold that knowledge in your head? That you could have had spent all that time in a bakery if you'd only had the sense to get born a little earlier? I know it's your thing but I'd love to be a part of it!"_

"Oh well- of course, Kristin! Thank you so much! Gosh I didn't even dare ask, but how wonderful to have Gloria's own granddaughter serve the customers!"

_"Awesome, thanks, Jared. So uh, how are things with Richard?"_

Jared smiled, looked over at Richard who was frowning a little at his book. "Oh," Jared said. "things are wonderful. I'm very happy." He nudged Richard a little with his foot and grinned at him. Richard, clearly not listening, smiled blankly back.

_"I'm so happy for you,"_ Kristin said. _"I knew you two would get it together sooner or later. I have a knack and an eye. I'm seventh generation witch, you know."_

"Gloria used to say knack and eye - uh, wait, what was that thing you said?"

Kristin laughed a pealing laugh. _"It's just a family joke. We have some Salem, Massachusetts ancestors and the women in my family have always been into home remedies. Nana was big into Wicca in the sixties. I do tarot readings. You know. It's cool, right? Kinda counterculture."_

"Yeah, it's cool. Um, thank you so much again. See you tomorrow, Kristin. Could you come by at like nine? Great, thanks again, bye." He hung up. "Huh."

"What?" Richard asked.

"Um, nothing."

*

Jared was in bed scrolling Pinterest but he couldn't focus on anything. That witch comment had put him off balance. It has made him think. He hadn't really questioned Richard basically... hitting on him, even though he'd been a little confused by his change in behaviour. He hadn't questioned Richard, who for years had recoiled from hugs and touches, kissing him, he'd been too happy. The Second Sight cookie. The First Kiss cupcake. It was ridiculous, if course it was ridiculous, just even thinking that Richard could be under a spell. It was stupid. Stupid. No, Richard liked him. Richard was into him. Richard, who he'd only ever seen show any romantic interest in women and who was generally touch adverse, had fallen for gawky, skinny, ghoulish Donald Dunn. Just like that. Of course he had. He scrolled a little more aggressively.

Richard walked into the bedroom. His hair was wet from his shower, he was wearing a fresh T-shirt and boxers.

"You sigh, the song begins, you speak and I hear violins, it's magic," he sang in a thin voice, grinning. 

Jared stared. "Uh."

Richard laughed, kept singing, while he crawled on the bed, towards Jared. "The stars desert the skies, and rush to nestle in your eyes, it's magic."

He leaned in for a kiss and Jared stopped him with a hand on his chest. Richard stopped singing. "What?"

"Not uh, not tonight, okay?"

Richard drew back, sat on his haunches. "Okay? Uh. You nervous about tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Jared lied.

Richard smiled a warm smile. "It's gonna be fantastic. You've done such an awesome fucking job. You're awesome." He folded his hands, looked down on them, then looked up. "Maybe it's like too soon to say this? But uh. Jared. I-"

"Gosh, Richard!" Jared said, reached for the light switch. "I really am just exhausted. Good night!" He turned off the light and turned on his side.

"Uh- yeah, good night, Jared." Richard kissed Jared's cheek lightly, and crawled in under the covers.


	7. Chapter 7

It was a bright and sunny day. Richard and Jared stood outside the bakery. It looked almost cartoony in the early morning sun, with its fresh paintwork in pastel green and pink, Jared's chiffon curtains framing the space from the inside. It looked very inviting. Like a fresh baked pastry. It was 7 AM.

"Well, this is it," Jared said. "goodness, it'll all be over tomorrow."

Richard looked up at him, smiled. "Look what you did."

" _We_ did it, Richard," Jared said. 

Richard reached out a hand to hold Jared's but Jared just quickly squeezed it in reply before pulling away and going over to unlock the door. Even with all the prepwork they'd done the day before they had a hell of a lot of work before them before opening. 

They walked through the space, with its ornate white tables and chairs, its jukebox and and photographs. The one change Jared had made was spreading the photos out, where they used to be clustered on one wall they were now evenly spaced, and he'd included a good few photos of Gloria too, and her sister Beth, and a selfie of him and Gloria out on a foraging walk. In the photo she grinned big, held onto his arm. 

It had taken a while for Jared to finish the menu, but as well as the Second Sight Cookies (with blue, green and brown irises), the First Kiss Cupcakes and the Everlasting Love Chocolate Mousse Cups there were the Warm Hug Apple Cake, the Fiery Gal Chili Chocolate Cake, the Come Together Layer Cake, Best Friend Cookies (indented with a blunt knife in the middle so they could easily be broken in two) and other delectables. They mixed and whipped and frothed and piped and glazed and decorated. 

At nine Kristin came along, and Jared showed her how to work the very out of date register before putting her to work decorating. And at 11, they opened their doors.

The first hour there were only five customers. All friends of Kristin.

At noon more people started to show up. Including a few who were visitors at the old bakery.

At two, there was a line to pay.

"Where is Dunn?" someone asked, there was something oddly familiar about the voice. Jared looked over at Richard to catch his eye but he was concentrating cross-eyed on making apple slice swirls on another cake. He walked out to the till and stared at the scene, the jukebox playing a Nancy & Lee song, people at the tables, holding hands, laughing, smiling, spilling out into the sidewalk outside. It was beautiful. 

The familiar voice belonged to Mark, the man who had been at the reading of Gloria's will. Jared suddenly regretted coming out of the kitchen.

"Um, hello!" he said.

Mark stared at him for a beat, then nodded. "It's... just like I remember it."

"Oh! Well uh, thank you," Jared said.

"Good crowd. You'll probably make a lot of money today, huh?"

"Uncle Maark," Kristin said in a warning tone.

"Oh, I doubt we'll make enough to cover the cost of the expenses," Jared shrugged. "that really wasn't the point of all this. It was for Gloria."

"Guess you'll sell the property after all this, huh?"

"Here," Kristin cut in, handed him a slice of Warm Hug Apple Cake. 

"Well, this looks good," he said, looked at it. "smells good, too." He took a spoonful and put it in his mouth, and it was like his features changed. He looked younger, all of a sudden, the frown inbetween his eyebrows flattened. "Gosh it... tastes just like it used to. When I was a kid. When my mom and aunt Gloria ran the place. Huh. You... put apple chunks in the batter, like they did. I don't know anybody else ever made an apple cake like that."

"We used their old recipes," Jared said.

"Huh," he said again. He smiled then, it blossomed on his face and almost made him look lovely. 

"That'll be five dollars," Kristin said.

He nodded, got his wallet out. "Well worth it, sweetheart." Then he turned, took his cake with him, and sat down on the sidewalk outside. 

Kristin suddenly started laughing. "I can't believe it. What do you put in your cakes, dude? Crack?"

Jared swallowed. Suddenly the happy, affectionate people in the bakery looked a little sinister to him. "I--"

"Jared uh, can you get back in uhhh," Richard called out from the kitchen.

By six they were completely out of every ingredient, but as the place was still full, there was still a little left to sell, and the jukebox was still playing Jared and Richard went out to join the crowd. Customers pointed out their old photos on the wall. Shared memories of Gloria. Danced to the music on the sidewalk outside. Jared looked over at Kristin at the register, laughing with someone, felt he got a flash of what Gloria must have looked like when she started the place, what it must have been like back then. He touched his throat, a little overwhelmed. Then Richard came over with a tall, dark-haired man in tow.

"Uh, uh Jared, um, this is Daniel."

"Oh uh, hello!" Jared said, shook the man's head.

"Daniel's a developer," Richard said.

Daniel flashed a very white smile. "Certainly am. Your partner here tells me this is a one night only deal, and I would love to know if you're interested in selling the property?"

"Oh-"

"Because I can offer two million dollars, right off the bat." He held the "m" in million, like he was savoring it.

Jared's eyebrows raised. "Goodness!"

"You don't have to decide right away, why don't I call you tomorrow-"

"Oh um- I'm afraid I've already had another offer," Jared said apologetically. Richard tilted his head.

"Well I'm sure I can match it," Daniel said. "what's the offer?"

"I just talked to a very lovely woman who works for the city! She told me all about a new initiative, a bakery that will only hire young people who need work experience or better life structure, they'll be able to learn how to bake and cook and sell and promote, with the support of professionals. But they need a space, and well, she says this would be just perfect! And she's offered me 1500 dollars a month in rent!"

Daniel snorted. "That's real cute. Think about the two million, okay? I'll call you tomorrow."

"No," Jared said. "I'm afraid I've decided. I'm going to rent it to the city."

"You heard him," Richard said, shrugged. "he's had a better offer."

Daniel pursed his lips, then turned and left.

It passed nine before the last person had left and Richard locked the doors. He walked into the kitchen, where Jared was looking under plates and glasses, and put his arms around him from behind, groaned tiredly. He'd run through his socializing budget for the month.

"Have you seen the Book of Spells?" Jared asked.

"Huh? It was over there, right?"

"I can't find it anywhere. I wanted to gift it to Kristin. I think she should have it. Oh, Richard, could someone have stolen it?"

"What? No, who could have stolen it? We've been in the kitchen all day, and when we went out we locked the door."

"I just-"

"Hey, look, it probably just fell down in between something, we'll look for it tomorrow, calm down. Hey."

Jared tugged Richard's hand away from where it was linked with the other over his stomach, walked away, sat down at one of the tables. Richard frowned, followed, sat down opposite him.

"Um, everything cool, Jared?"

"I just don't understand where it could have got to."

"We'll find it, chill out." Richard smiled. "Today was awesome. I mean, it was fucking exhausting, but like, we did it! People were happy and smiling and liked everything we sold. It was, it was magic, right?"

Jared winced.

"Seriously, Jared, what the hell is wrong?"

"Richard, I um. I'd like you to keep an open mind, okay?"

"Uh? Open mind?"

"Yes um- oh goodness, Richard, I'm not sure how to tell you this but- there's a chance what you're feeling right now isn't... real."

"Huh?"

"Well, you remember when we tried those Second Sight cookies?"

"Yeaaah?"

"Your... behaviour, changed a little, afterwards. Um. You became more... affectionate?"

Richard stared. "And?"

"And uh well, there were the First Kiss cupcakes, you know we ate that and we..." Jared gesticulated.

Richard frowned deep, his eyebrows knitting together. "And?"

"Well, don't you think that's kind of a funny coincidence?"

Richard shrugged. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Jared pressed his lips together. "Oh, Richard, I'm just afraid - I'm just afraid maybe the uh pastries gave us a little help and uh-"

Richard closed his eyes, pinched his fingers over the root of his nose. "Jared, are you seriously trying to insinuate we got together because of magic pastries?"

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but Richard, we've known each other for so long, and you've never acted like this! Please, if you try and think back-"

"This is the most esoteric way anyone has ever broken up with me," Richard said, incredulously. "I can't be with you, because you're under a spell. Jared, do you seriously believe this bullshit, or is it about something I did? Because, you said, you said you'd tell me if I fucked up!"

"Oh, Richard, you haven't done anything! You're perfect! I- I think this may just be a little bit too good to be- true."

Richard took a deep breath. His leg jiggled and he glared at his hands. He steepled and unsteepled his fingers, drew his lip back, he was clearly trying to phrase something in his head. "Jared," he said, finally. "the reason I've been acting more affectionate, or whatever, is that I fucking like you, okay, and I was trying to like, flirt. I didn't kiss you because of... witchcraft, I kissed you because I thought you were fucking flirting back. No, I didn't just think, you were doing it. Actually. Jared. You fed me a fucking cupcake."

Jared pinked a little.

"And if you want me to think back, okay. Let's uh, let's go back a little, uh, remember um, when we were in the Gobi desert, when we went out on the steppes after that banquet thing and watched the sunset? We'd uh, had all that baijiu?"

"Of course," Jared whispered.

"I wanted to kiss you so bad then," Richard said. "I wanted us to eat the moon together."

"What?"

"Remember uh, remember Amsterdam? When we um, we were in that hotel without towels? You uuuh, you came out of the shower like, just, naked and dripping and jesus _christ._ And you were like laughing and embarrassed and you were so hot and so cute and uh. Fuck."

A gentle smile blossomed all over Jared's face. "Goodness, Richard."

"Remember Gwart? I couldn't believe you fucking left me for her. I was so angry I couldn't think straight. And uh, I kind of, acted a little rude, maybe, because, frankly, I was jealous." He scratched the back of his head. "It felt really weird, um, and I kind of, wondered why. I was so. Jealous." He sighed. "It was one of those things I was going to really think about when I travelled, but then you kept showing up and uhh, well, I cracked it eventually." He cleared his throat, shrugged. "I'm in love with you, Jared."

"Oh, Richard-" Jared said a little wonderingly.

"So I mean uh, like, if you don't want to do this I... uh, well, that fucking sucks. But like, don't tell me it's because my feelings aren't... real. What are- oh!" Richard yelped as Jared pulled hard on his arm and dragged him into his lap, put long arms tight around him.

"Sorry," Jared whispered, and kissed Richard, first hard, and then soft. "sorry. Oh, oh Richard- I'm in love with you too." He grinned, his eyes shone. 

Richard used the pad of his thumb to stroke Jared's face. "You really fucking thought you baked magic cakes, man?" He laughed.

Jared went red and hugged his face to Richard's neck. "It sounds very stupid when you put it like that," he said, muffled. Richard threaded his fingers through Jared's hair. 

"Well uh, maybe uh, they made me a little braver. Like a little nudge to work up some fucking nerve finally? Haha. That's as far as I'll stretch." He smiled shyly. "The fact I'm even entertaining that theory that far should like... prove... I'm crazy about you."

"I'm just waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me." Jared's voice went high and thin.

"Okay, how about this. We're both unemployed, we're running out of money, I'm persona non grata in this whole city, and we're out of lube."

Jared laughed. 

"Like seriously, we need to go uh stock up."

Jared shook his head and leaned up for a kiss, and Richard kissed back, warm fingers curling up at Jared's neck.

"Oh, hey, I have an idea," Richard said. 

"Mmm?"

"I actually put one of those Everlasting Love cups in uh the fridge, earlier, for us, to share?" Richard raised an eyebrow. "Wanna see if this magic of yours really works?"

Jared beamed at him, nodded. 

They never found that spell book, even though they spent several hours looking, and asked the renters to keep an eye out for it when they moved in. But the magic hasn't run out yet.


End file.
